Wednesday, December 27, 2017

This week all of my original watercolor Christmas paintings are 40% off! Yay for discounts right after the holidays! I love shopping this time of year because I get awesome deals on stuff for the following year.

Just visit the CHRISTMAS section of my Etsy Shop- no code required. Enjoy!

Wednesday, December 20, 2017

I know this fruit is totally out of season at the moment, but who doesn't love peaches?

I worked really hard on this collection of watercolor peach paintings and patterns and I loved it! The colors are to die for! I will be painting in these colors again.... guaranteed. The abstract patterns were really intuitive and fun to paint. I felt so free painting these and so like myself. I've always been a sucker for green.

Tuesday, December 12, 2017

Lately, I've been working hard at taming my inner ADD artist and focus more on creating sets of paintings. It's always been hard for me to stick to just one subject because I have so many ideas! But I'm learning that taking the time to explore a subject more thoroughly just increases the painting ideas I come up with. It challenges me to figure out more ways to work with one subject.

Tuesday, October 17, 2017

This fall I've been looking for some more affordable ways to decorate. I love pumpkins and flowers, but the real ones are costly, plus they don't last from year to year. So what did I do? I hit up my local dollar store to see what I could work with.

Saturday, October 14, 2017

I've been hard at work on some possible licensing projects so the blog has taken a back seat for the past month. I should really start painting holiday stuff in the summer so I'm prepared for the rush in the fall.

Monday, September 18, 2017

This week is all about the yellows! The sunflowers and rabbit-brush exploded around here so I took a little walk with my trusty camera. I've missed doing that. I forgot how much joy I get from noticing the beauty around me and photographing it. It's such a gift.

Wednesday, September 13, 2017

You may have noticed lots of cactus paintings popping up on this blog and on my instagram feed in recent weeks. It's because cactus plants are sooo fun to paint and there are so many ways to paint them!

Tuesday, August 29, 2017

Sometimes the paintings just flow from me, like a steady stream of joy and peace. Those are the best painting sessions. I come away feeling like I've done some sort of metal yoga. I feel centered and happy.

Thursday, August 10, 2017

I am forever painting flowers and experimenting with new ways to paint them. My latest paintings seem to have something of sea life in them. It's a combination of flowers and something like a sea anemone. I love it and I will be painting lots more of these!

Monday, August 7, 2017

I can't begin to post a fraction of the photos I took at the central California coast over the last week. We were completely enthralled by the beauty of Big Sur, Monterey Bay, and Carmel-by-the-Sea. Most of the time I felt like I was in fairy tale land. The misty coast and turquoise blue waters are a site to behold.

Tuesday, July 18, 2017

I've made a goal this summer to spend some quality art time with my son. He's eight and growing up fast! And even though art is not his favorite thing to do, I've found that if I can frame an art project as an "experiment" (which it really is), he is much more willing to try it.

This sharpie canvas art project is my favorite one we've tried! And I love being able to connect with my son this way. We made it more about the process than about the final product. We just wanted to see what happened when we drew crazy patterns with different types of markers and sprayed them with rubbing alcohol. We discovered a few fun things along the way!

So keep reading below to see how we made this fun collaborative piece of art!

Monday, July 17, 2017

I finally got myself down to the lake this summer. No swimming though- the algae bloom is back at Utah Lake- ugggh!

It's such a shame that this beautiful place gets used as a dumping ground in Utah. It could be such a wonderful resource! At least I get to enjoy the plants and birds that live near the shore and I get to see the lake with the mountains rising above it from my own front porch.

Monday, June 5, 2017

It's the beginning of summer and that means freedom! It also means that school-aged kids are transitioning from having a full-scheduled-day to having lots of free time. I don't know about you, but I have to make a summer fun list to keep my son busy doing things besides watching t.v.

Thursday, May 25, 2017

Today I want to talk about art licensing, how I got my feet wet in the art licensing world, and give you a few tips on getting started with licensing your own work. Licensing can be intimidating because it involves negotiations, legal documents, contracts, and in some artist's cases, lawyers (yikes) but you can take it one step at a time and figure things out as you go. That's what I did!

So here's how I got started:

My first licensing opportunity came to me through Etsy- actually ALL of my art licensing opportunities have come to me through Etsy. It's the best place to get discovered- in my opinion :)

In 2014, a design company asked me about licensing my pink feathers watercolor painting for some packaging for beauty products. I didn't know a thing about licensing at that time, so I dived into the internet for some serious research. The design company was negotiating with a few other artists simultaneously, so it was a little scary! I didn't end up getting that deal because the client went with the cheapest bid and another artist underbid me... boohoo. At least I was confident that I had not undersold my work- thanks to my research! Plus I learned a lot just from the communication back and forth with the design company. It prepped me for future negotiations. It was a valuable experience!

A year later I was contacted by a company that manufactures artwork for Hobby Lobby. They liked my pink feathers too and this time I landed the deal! Over the past few years, I've worked with them and get paid 3% of the wholesale price of each product that they manufacture and sell to Hobby Lobby with my artwork on it. It's not a ton of money per item, but when they manufacture a lot of prints at once, it adds up quickly. So it's not a bad deal!

Then last fall came another big break, I was contacted by a nice lady at the Anthropologie Beauty Department! Dream come true! I drool over Anthro stuff all the time. This deal was a flat fee payment for the design of and exclusive use of three vintage car illustrations for two years. I worked really hard on the illustrations and made a nice chunk of change on that deal, plus I get to add that to my resume!

Because of the contacts I have made, I continue to have opportunities to license my watercolor art. It just snowballs after you get going.

Now for the good stuff, the tips!

1: Do some market research.
Even though you might feel like you are selling out as an artist by doing this, not many of us artists can survive without following current trends and painting what people like. Get on Pinterest and follow your contemporaries on Instagram. Check out what is selling at the stores that you want your art to be in! This will get your wheels spinning.2: Create a good body of work.
Spend some quality time creating quality work. Create and create some more! Realize that not everything you make is going to be a masterpiece and be ok with that. Let yourself be free to experiment because those experiments can give you your best ideas.

3: Get your stuff online.
This is one of the most critical steps. The more you get your work on the web, the more likely you are to be found! Open an Etsy shop, post your work on a blog, maintain an Instagram account, and pin your work as you create it. It took years of putting my work online consistently before I ever got a contact, so be patient too. Consistency is key here. If you are continually creating work and showcasing it online, you will get your name out there.

4: Educate yourself.
While you're waiting for your ship to come in, learn all you can about licensing. Understand the different kinds of licenses (i.e. exclusive and non-exclusive contracts). Determine what you would charge for your work with each type of license. Check out this art licensing article to get some savvy pricing advice.

5: Practice your business communication skills.
This is another way that Etsy prepared me for negotiating with licensors. I often paint custom artwork for my Etsy customers so I get to practice my professional communication skills on a regular basis as we work out the details of commissions and agree on prices. All the back-and-forth might feel like a pain, but you NEED to know how to communicate professionally. It's good for you!
So take on commissions, submit your work for shows or contests, and take every opportunity to build your communication skills. They are so very very valuable!

So that's my two-cents on licensing. I am no expert, but I have learned a few things so far and I hope you find them helpful!

Wednesday, May 24, 2017

Painting loose florals like these require some speedy painting or some paper that doesn't absorb water quickly. I think Arches paper is probably best, but I'm always too cheap to splurge on that stuff. I was able to get some pretty decent loose, soft flowers with canson watercolor paper..... and it's much much cheaper!

Tuesday, May 16, 2017

My artist sister-in-law ( Emily Engh) showed me the work of an oil painter (Iris Scott) who paints with her fingers (with gloves on of course) and we decided to try out the oil finger painting technique ourselves. It's been for-ev-er since I've painted with oils. These floral paintings are what came out of our experiment session!

Back in college I fell in love with oil painting because of the richness of the paints and the amazing textures you can create. I thought I would be an oil painter forever.... haha!

Now that I'm primarily a watercolor artist, I don't use oils very often, but I still have a thing for oils. There were my first love, after all.

Blog Archive

Protected Content

Copyright/ Terms of Use

Copyright Elise Engh and Grow Creative 2010-2018. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog's author and/or owner is strictly prohibited.

Any artwork, photos, tutorials and ideas shown on this blog are the property of Elise Engh, unless otherwise stated. You may not copy an entire post and post it on your website or blog. Small excerpts and links may be used, provided that clear and full credit is given to Elise Engh and Grow Creative with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. My tutorials, patterns, templates, and ideas are for personal, non-commercial, and non-profit use only. Thanks!